Update: This story has been updated to correct a statement from Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith, who has not supported gun registration in the state.

While Second Amendment rights and gun laws have been hotly debated around the country in recent months, the topic is not new to Loveland resident Tate Beeson.

Even and especially as a convicted felon, Beeson believes his constitutional rights have been denied and is in the midst of a three-year battle to find out how his gun rights may be reinstated.

In 1994, Colorado amended its gun laws to ban any felon from ever possessing a firearm. But that was not the law when Beeson says he made the "stupid mistakes" of his youth.

Beeson, 46, was convicted of felonies in the mid-to-late 1980s after pleading guilty in Boulder and Adams counties to forgery, criminal conspiracy and possession of marijuana, all non-violent crimes that did not involve the use of a weapon. After his last conviction in 1988, Colorado law allowed for Beeson and other non-violent felons to be able to possess a firearm 10 years after completition of sentencing.

He would have been eligible to regain the right to bear arms in 2003, but has been told repeatedly that because of his past convictions, gun possession will result in arrest.

"Colorado would force me under their interpretation to commit a crime to protect myself," he said.

Beeson believes he should be covered under the ex post facto laws of the U.S. and state constitutions. He also points to the state constitutional requirement that anyone disfranchised during imprisonment will "without further action, be invested with all the rights of citizenship."

"Now it's more of a civil rights issue than a gun issue," Beeson said. "It feels like I'm still serving my sentence that was given to me 25 years ago."

Loveland attorney Troy Krenning believes that ex post facto laws would only apply to Beeson's situation in the event that past behavior was made criminal. He cited a 2011 Colorado Court of Appeals decision, the People vs. John Raymond DeWitt, which upheld unlawful possession of weapons charges on a felon whose original conviction was prior to 1994.

When the 1994 amendment took effect, Krenning said it did, in fact, change the outcome of Beeson's original sentencing.

"Every time one of those changes goes into effect we're all subject to it," Krenning said.

Up until a few years ago, Beeson, a married father of four, said he'd never given much thought to owning a gun. Now that he's older, he's taken a new interest in home protection, or maybe joining friends in target practice or hunting.

Under federal law, those with felony convictions have long forfeited the right to bear arms, though federal law gives states the right to dictate reinstatement of gun rights. Colorado Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Susan Medina said that it's federal law the agency adheres to when a person attempts to purchase a firearm.

"We follow the federal provisions related to background checks," Medina said. "If somebody has a felony conviction, that is a prohibitor."

Medina referred questions about the ex post facto laws to the state Attorney General's office.

Carolyn Tyler, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's office, would not comment on an individual case or specific circumstances and said she could comment only on the state's ex post facto laws.

"The doctrine itself prohibits the retroactive punishment of a prior act," she said.

Beeson has spent much time over the past few years reaching out to numerous government agencies, elected officials, state and federal legislators. Responses have ranged from empathy with an expressed inability to help, Beeson said, to less than cordial comments he finds are typical of the social stigma that comes with being a convicted felon.

"People do change, and if they have a right, then let them have it," his wife, Marlene Beeson, said.

If he does ever own a gun, Beeson says it will be through legal means, as the fight is not one he's willing to take to a jail cell. But if he were willing to take the risk, it's true that it wouldn't be too difficult to have or use a gun in Colorado. There is no law that prevents a felon from obtaining a Colorado hunting license, and when a person is pulled over with a firearm there is no in-field tool for officers to determine whether they possess the weapon legally.

"We know there's firearms in the hands of people who are prohibited by law from having them," Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said.

State Rep. Perry Buck, R-Windsor, recently introduced a bill that doesn't directly address Beeson's issue but would nonetheless allow him to own a gun. The bill, which is currently laid over with work being done to amendments, would allow non-violent felons to possess firearms.